


Migrating Birds

by RavenDreamer



Series: The Family on the Moor [2]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crowfeather's an alright dad in this one, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kits bein' kits, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25708678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenDreamer/pseuds/RavenDreamer
Summary: Jay is six moons old the first time he dreams his way into StarClan.-Sequel to Any Other Way, in which Jayfeather grows up outside the Clans with his siblings, goes fox-hunting and makes a discovery.
Relationships: Hollyleaf & Jayfeather & Lionblaze (Warriors)
Series: The Family on the Moor [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863505
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Migrating Birds

Jay is six moons old when he first dreams his way into StarClan.

It’s not long after Crowfeather moves Jay, Holly and Lion out of the warm, echoing barn they grew up in, and into the abandoned fox den on the wind-scented moor. The four of them don’t take long to settle into a routine. In the mornings, Crowfeather takes Jay and his siblings out onto the moor to hunt, play-fight and explore. In the afternoons, the kits stay in and around the fox den while Crowfeather heads out alone.

Crowfeather always returns to the abandoned fox den at dusk, a routine as fixed and predictable as the sun itself. But tonight, Jay awakes from a light, uneasy sleep to find the last of the day’s warmth gone and no sign or scent of his father. Holly and Lion are sitting together at the entrance to the fox den. They’re both on the verge of panic; that’s what woke him up.

“Is he not back yet?” Jay asks.

“Nope,” Holly says, popping the _p_. It’s a vocal tic she picked up from the kits they grew up with, back in the barn, and it’s intensely annoying. Jay chooses to ignore it.

“Did he say he’d be back late?”

“Nope.”

“Can you stop making that stupid sound?” Jay asks. Holly shoves him in response. He tussles with Holly for a few minutes, more as a distraction than anything else, until his own worry prompts him to ask, “Are we gonna look for him?”

“We were just talking about that,” Lion says, “before you got here.”

“Well, thanks for leaving me out.”

“You were asleep,” Holly points out. “Anyway, you’re here now. Lion thinks we should go look for Crowfeather, I think we shouldn’t. What about you?”

“I don’t know,” Jay’s in the middle of saying, when he hears a rustle somewhere out on the moor. He nudges Holly and Lion. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Lion asks.

The rustle comes again, closer this time. Holly tenses up next to Jay as she hears it. The moor is full of noises at night - a breeze blowing through the long grass, the skittering pawsteps of prey, the rhythmic wingbeats of a low-flying bird - but Jay has a lifetime’s experience listening out for night noises, and this one belongs to a large animal, at least the size of a cat. And it’s heading towards them.

Outside the den, someone coughs, clearing their throat. And then, “Are you three still awake? I’m sorry I’m back late.”

Jay relaxes as he hears Crowfeather’s voice, and then tenses again at the scent that comes with it. Blood clings to Crowfeather like a burr, overpowering even the scent of the freshly killed rabbit he carries in his jaws.

“Are you hurt?” Jay asks, but Crowfeather won’t answer, just herds Jay and his siblings into the den.

-

“I don’t want the three of you leaving the den without me,” Crowfeather says the next morning. “Not even for a little while. Not even together.”

The four of them are breakfasting on the remains of the rabbit. Morning has swept away some of the anxiety from the previous night, but the atmosphere in the abandoned fox den is still tense. Crowfeather reeks of the chevril poultice he messily applied to his flank after the kits fell asleep. Jay could've done a better job, but apparently Crowfeather’s trying to conceal how badly he was hurt.

“Not even to use the dirtplace?” Lion asks, because Lion still thinks that kind of thing is funny.

Crowfeather makes an annoyed noise in the back of his throat. “You know what I mean. This is serious - a vixen and her cubs might be trying to move here. If she thinks that one of you three is a threat, she will kill you. Do you understand?”

Jay mumbles in assent, hearing Holly and Lion do the same.

“Was the vixen the one who hurt you?” Holly asks.

Jay asks, “Are you going to drive it off?”

“Yes,” Crowfeather says shortly. “We’ll do some quick hunting practice after breakfast, and then you three are going to stay inside while I sort this out.”

He’s true to his word, and midday finds the three kits stuck back inside the cramped fox den, well fed after the morning’s catch but growing increasingly reckless.

“It’s not fair,” Holly declares. She’s slumped on a pile of mossy bedding at the very back of the den, her voice echoing off the earthy walls towards Jay. “We’re all good at tracking - particularly Jay. Plus, if we were in WindClan, we’d be apprentices by now. Crowfeather said so. He should be letting us help.”

Lion’s pawsteps thump back and forth near the den entrance. “He told us to guard the den. That’s helping.”

“He told us to guard the den so we’d stay here,” Jay points out. “I agree with Holly. We should go out and look for ourselves.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Holly says, sounding vaguely shocked. “Crowfeather told us to stay here.”

Jay sighs and flops back against the den wall. Although the temperature outside is mild, underground with no breeze to cool them down is stifling. His tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. 

“We’ll have to go out soon anyway,” Lion says. “I need a drink. That’s not against the rules, is it?”

“You know," Jay says, getting to his paws, "Crowfeather can’t blame us if we accidentally find the vixen’s tracks while we’re getting a drink.”

“Yeah, Holly, you can’t argue with that.”

“I mean,” Holly says in a tone that suggests she very much can, but isn’t sure if she wants to. “Fine. But we’d better be quick.”

-

Outside the fox den, the air is blissfully cool and full of the scent of growing things. A strong head wind is blowing as the littermates walk towards the nearest stream, carrying the scent of running water towards them.

There’s no fox scent around the stream, which is annoying. Jay’d hoped that the foxes might’ve gone to the stream to drink, which would’ve made stumbling across their trail entirely not the kits' fault. Holly and Lion confirm that there’s no pawprints.

“What do we do now?” Lion asks, once they've all drunk their fill of the cool, fast-flowing water.

“We head back to the den, I guess,” Jay says reluctantly. “But not straight back. We can circle around.”

Walking in the direction of the wind ought to be easier, but in reality it keeps blowing Jay into loose rocks and tufts of grass that he can’t avoid in time. After he trips the second time, Holly and Lion wordlessly take to walking either side of him. Jay doesn’t have the heart to do more than grumble. They’ve almost reached the abandoned fox den. He needs to think of another excuse so they can all stay outside.

“I can walk on my-” he’s saying, when Holly stiffens up next to him.

“Get down!” she hisses.

“What?”

“Just get down! Behind that rock.”

Obeying her, Jay draws in a deep breath, hoping to smell anything other than the wind. He wishes he could see what Holly and Lion are seeing, but all he can sense from them is fear.

“It’s the fox,” Lion whispers, his breath warm in Jay’s ear. “Her and her cubs. They’re at the den.”

Jay’s stomach drops. That means that the fox is a few strides away from discovering him and his siblings. Now he’s still, Jay can hear a faint mewling which must be the fox cubs calling to their mother. Stupid wind, keeping him distracted until it’s too late.

He nudges Lion. “Now what are they doing?”

“The mother’s picked up the cubs in her mouth,” Lion says. “And now she’s carrying them into…”

Lion’s voice drops away. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Jay remembers the distinctive, musky scent that filled their home when they first arrived. The scent that’s now creeping towards him.

Holly’s the one to say it. “I don’t think it's an _abandoned_ fox den anymore.”

-

“What are they doing now?” Jay whispers. The littermates have been crouched behind the rock long enough for Jay’s leg muscles to cramp up. It’s beginning to rain, too, the raindrops tossed in the wind. The rock - one of many gritty boulders that litter the moor - doesn’t provide much shelter.

The wind has changed direction a little, blowing more of the fox scent towards Jay, but all that tells him is that the danger’s there. Not what’s happening.

“The foxes are still in our den,” Lion reports, sounding more angry than scared. “They’re probably stinking up our bedding. And -” His voice changes, surprise sparking off him - “They’re leaving! Or wait, no, the vixen’s leaving. She’s left her cubs behind.”

“Maybe she told them not to wander off while she goes to beat up Crowfeather,” Holly observes.

Jay thinks that would’ve been funnier if the three of them weren’t stuck out here in the pouring rain with no idea how to get their den back. “Do you think they’ll sneak out to fight us, then?”

“I dunno. Maybe!”

“You know,” Lion says. “There’s only two cubs in there.”

“And?” Holly demands, although Jay suspects she knows what Lion’s about to say as well as he does.

“There’s three of us. And they looked pretty small, too. We could take them, easy.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea…”

“Like we could get into any more trouble than we already have.”

Jay opens his mouth to comment, but a rush of air and the sound of paws next to him tells him that Lion’s already gone. He turns his attention towards Holly, who’s giving off a mixture of anger, dread and determination.

“We’d better go help him. Unless you want to…”

Jay appreciates her tact - actually, he doesn’t appreciate her tact, but he gets that she’s trying. He shakes his head. “I’m going. I've had just as much fighting practice as you two."

Whether or not Holly approves, she doesn’t argue further as the two siblings sprint towards the (not-so-abandoned) fox den. Jay’s familiar enough with the terrain that he arrives at the den entrance only a few moments after Holly. The foul, musky fox scent is all around them now.

As Jay and Holly hesitate at the den entrance, a cry of pain comes from inside the den. Not Lion. A fox's shout.

“What’s he doing to them?” Holly wonders. As she speaks, Jay hears another pained yelp. This one _is_ Lion.

“Come on!” Jay shoves Holly forward and hurries into the den after her. He’s knocked over almost immediately; pain blooms in his shoulder as he collides with an earth wall. He drags himself back up and into the blur of snarls and furious, jabbing limbs, managing a few more hits before he falls again. The only consolation is that he probably didn’t hit Lion or Holly.

Jay isn’t sure if any of the combatants know how to fight, but he knows he’s the worst of the lot. Every time he thinks he’s sorted out the tangle of fox and cat scent, someone knocks into him and he’s lost again.

Pawsteps shake the ground above them. Jay hears - no, scents - no, feels - all the animals in the den pause, unsure who the new arrival is. And then someone’s hauling Jay out of the den by the scruff of his neck, shouting about _what in StarClan are you doing_ and _are you okay_ and _you three are going to be in so much trouble when I’ve got you out_. Even through his relief, Jay feels dread curl in his stomach. Part of him suspects things would’ve been easier if the fox had come instead.

As Crowfeather carries him into the fresh air, Jay considers what just happened. He's used to using his other senses to compensate for his blindness, but he's pretty sure he didn't smell or hear the spark of realisation reverberating through the fox den. Or Holly's and Lion's radiating panic that woke him yesterday. Jay doesn't understand what that means, not yet, but he itches to investigate further. Just as soon as he's rested from the fight...

Crowfeather deposits Jay a few fox-lengths away from the den before racing off to retrieve Holly and Lion. After that, things get a bit blurry for Jay. He remembers being carried back to the den, now a chaotic mess thanks to the battle, and Crowfeather finding herbs to soothe Jay’s and Holly’s wounds - although not, curiously, for Lion’s. He remembers Holly telling him _we’re in for it now_ and Lion complaining that none of them will be leaving the den again in approximately forever.

And he remembers the dream.

-

The dream begins with Jay opening his eyes - not onto darkness, but onto a jumble of bright light and confusing shapes. At first, he doesn’t know what to think. Blinking his eyes doesn’t get rid of the light - doesn’t get rid of the fact that Jay is _seeing_ , for the first time in his life.

As he’s working this out, the shapes coalesce into a cat with a marbled pelt and amber eyes. Her feelings are… difficult to parse. Jay doesn’t know if it’s because he’s seeing her or if it's because what she’s feeling is difficult, happy and sad at the same time.

“Who are you?” he asks.

The she-cat half smiles. “Hello, Jay. My name’s Leafpool.”

Jay recognises the name, but in his dream state he takes a moment to remember where from. “Leafpool as in our mum?” he asks dubiously. “You can’t be her, she’s dead.”

“Let’s pretend I am her, then,” Leafpool says, hurt flashing from her. “I wish I could’ve been there for you and Lion and Holly, but -”

“You’re dead,” Jay finishes for her. “And you live in my dreams now.”

This’ll be something to tell Holly and Lion about, when he wakes up.

“Not quite.” Leafpool sounds like she’s disguising a laugh. “It’s a place called StarClan. I’ll tell you more about it soon, but right now I think we need to talk.”

StarClan’s familiar, too - Crowfeather mentions it sometimes, mostly when he’s angry. Jay wants to ask more - a lot more - about how that means she’s talking to him, but he supposes that’s not what’s relevant right now.

“About the foxes?”

“Not about the foxes. About the three of you. StarClan’s been buzzing about this for moons, now, but - Jay, have you done anything recently that you shouldn’t have been able to?”

“I can’t even do all the things I should be able to,” Jay can’t resist saying, waving a forepaw in the direction of his eyes. After a moment, he relents. “I know what cats are feeling, sometimes. I used to think it was just another sense, but today…”

Leafpool nods, her voice more worried than interested. “That’ll be it. And Holly? Lion?”

“Why can’t you ask them yourself?”

“I can only reach you,” Leafpool says, sounding frustrated. “StarClan isn’t quite as powerful as I thought it was, back when… You would tell me, wouldn’t you? If you knew something?”

“Maybe,” Jay hedges. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because… It’s complicated, Jay, but something’s happening and I’m worried it involves the three of you. You ought to be safe so far from the Clans, but in case you aren’t there’s some things you need to know. Tell your littermates. There’s a new prophecy, Tigerstar walks beyond the stars, Brambleclaw isn’t to be trusted…”

As Jay scrambles to remember what Leafpool’s saying, he realises her voice is fading. So is her body - he can see through her now, to the grassy clearing they’re apparently sitting in.

He leaps to his paws, fighting for control of her, the dream, anything. “What’s happening?”

“Jay, don’t panic. I’m so sorry, I -” Leafpool sounds halfway to panic herself. “Just - remember what I told you. And remember that I love you and Holly and Lion, always.”

And then she’s gone, and then so is the clearing, and then Jay’s opening his eyes onto familiar darkness.

-

Jay doesn’t tell Holly or Lion about the dream after all - he doesn’t think too hard about why - but that doesn’t stop him from noticing things. Lion’s mysterious lack of wounds from the fox cubs marks the first in a string of battles he wins without suffering even a scratch. Holly takes to cracking jokes about Lion’s thick pelt. When Jay tries to sense Lion’s feelings after a battle, the most he ever finds is a vague sense of confusion, quickly pushed away.

Jay’s own gift (power, sense) only gets stronger as the seasons pass. One morning he wakes from a dream of soaring mountains and a cat with enormous sharp fangs, only to realise it wasn’t his dream after all - it was Crowfeather’s. So that’s a thing. He tries not to spy on his family’s thoughts, but as he hones his talent it becomes increasingly useful when interacting with cats he doesn’t care about as much.

For example, the very near future. Five seasons have passed since Jay’s dream, and the littermates are further from the abandoned fox den than they’ve ever been before. Behind them is the endless, rolling moor; ahead of them is the sudden, scentless void of a cliff edge. And far, far below that - according to the description that Lion’s giving - are the Clans.

“I can’t see any of the camps,” Lion says. “But all the territories are there, just like Crowfeather said. It’s so weird to see them in real life.”

“Which way’s ThunderClan?” Jay asks. It’s times like this when he most wishes he could see the view for himself; he’ll have to wait until they arrive at the lake before he can get to know it, while Holly and Lion have a head start. His paws itch to get moving again.

“To our right, I think,” Lion says. “Yeah, there’s a whole lot of trees there.”

“So we’re settled on ThunderClan, then?” Holly asks from Jay’s other side.

Jay sighs theatrically. “No, me and Lion both changed our minds in the five minutes since we last had this discussion.”

“Whatever.”

The littermates subside into silence. Lion - or maybe Holly - first broached the topic of leaving the moor and the abandoned fox den, but all of them have their own reasons for wanting it to work out. Lion wants a challenge he can’t easily surmount. Holly wants to belong. Jay wants - He _wants_. To find out what on earth Leafpool was talking about when she visited him five seasons ago. Whether he and his littermates really have special abilities, and why. Whether they’re in danger.

He’s always hated not knowing what’s going on.

“Whatever happens when we get there,” Holly says, “we’re still going to look out for each other, right?”

“Of course,” Jay says, Lion echoing him. “When don’t we?”

“I know, but - things are going to be different in the Clans. They have the warrior code and everything.”

“You mean, the bad wrong code that Crowfeather and Leafpool ran away from?” Lion asks, teasingly.

“We’ll have to _keep_ that code now, you know.”

“It won’t be so bad,” Jay says, although Holly’s not wrong about things being different. If any of Jay’s suspicions are correct, they’ll be more different than she knows. “There’s bound to be ways around the code if we need them.”

Lion adds, “We’re still _us_. The same idiots who tried to fight those fox cubs. The Warrior Code can’t change that.”

Jay feels Holly’s anxiety harden into resolve. Fur rustles against grass as Holly unfolds herself into a standing position and sets off along the ridge. Jay follows her lead.

“Come on, then. We’d better hurry if we want to get there before sunset.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, I really appreciate comments and kudos - let me know what you thought, and if there are other stories from this au you'd enjoy. And thanks to Sirius Blakefield from the wff discord for help with the title!


End file.
